As a millennial and a citizen of the Internet myself, sometimes I am a bit too lazy to go out and buy the things I need at an actual store, I consider browsing the actual book of yellow pages a waste of my precious time, and actually speaking on the phone is a bit awkward too. And I am not alone. It may be a generational issue but my generation represents a huge 25% of the market. So what do we millennials do when laziness, lack of time, or simply practicality strikes but we still are in need of a product or service? We go online. Busy, on-the-rush Xgeners (the ones with the money) are fully aware of the advantages of online transactions, and so are many baby-boomers. So this is a huge portion of people who seek to make business with companies online. So what happens when your business does not have a proper website? You lose money. A lot of money. So if you are still not totally convinced that your small store in a small town or your huge company in many cities across the country or even the world needs a website, here are 5 reasons to make you finally go online.
1. More Sales!
This one is pretty obvious but let’s give the numbers a chance to explain it better than I would.
2. Convenience
Unlike your store or office that needs to close some time during the day, your website will be open and available 24/7, which is highly convenient because it won’t matter where they are or what time of the day or which day of the week it is, your business will always be available for them. This also means you can reach a wider market, a world-wide market.
3. Credibility
First impressions matter. Having an aesthetic, to the point, and information-complete website will instantly make your business look bigger, more professional, and even more successful that it may actually be since it will give the potential costumer the confidence that your company is serious enough to care for the costumer’s online experience, and also a sense of proximity, a sense that they will be heard and their opinions will be considered (which translates into better costumer service). Also, this will keep them well informed about your products or services, which is highly important since it’s proven that 96% of consumers admit making an online research prior engaging in business with a company, and they also think it’s a priority for businesses to invest in a well designed website. This can even result in you getting better chances to get a business loan, since the value of your company will be perceived as higher.
4. Affordable Marketing
How much have you invested in brochures, newspaper or magazine-ads, radio and TV spots, billboards or flyers? How many people have you reached that way? It certainly is effective but you can reach many times more people for about a third of the budget with a proper website. And you will not only be seen, a transaction will actually be considered, since people in search for a product or service online already have a purchase intent, and if your website has a proper search engine optimization, your business could be among the first results they can run into, which will give you many advantages.
5. Competition
As simple as this: your competitors have a website. And though they may be offering lower quality in their product or service, they DO have a website and that will always be an advantage for them over your better qualified on-the-online-shadow business. The squeaky wheel gets the oil!
We can’t escape technology, we can’t escape the way modern business works, and there no doubt that the Internet has become an essential tool for any business, so it better be used, and used smartly in our favor.